New Hawaii start up to deal with plastic waste

[Guest]

A snarky reply, still no answer or even opinion to offer on solution. THAT is what I take away.

weak

[ElysianWort]

We humans will continue to "shoot ourselves in the foot" as we exist on this planet. Our creation of plastic is one of those said foot shootings. The problem with it is that it is disguised as a necessity in our modern world.
http://nationalgeographic.org/encycloped...age-patch/
Plastic is unnatural and poisonous. Certain kinds of plastics get discontinued for beverage containers and other types come in until testing results prove they too are poison. Yup, so many babies drink out of sippy cups and plastic bottles. sigh.
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/...-chemicals

A study here shows that 80% of us have detectable plastic in our bodies. And that was 7 years ago. I bet the number is higher now.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/e...of-plastic

[SBH]

quote:

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Originally posted by alaskyn66

I doubt it's any more toxic than the treated lumber we build our homes with or the asphalt mixture we build our roads with.

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Borate treated lumber is as toxic as salt or baking soda. Humans have mined and used borate / boron / borax (also known as sodium tetraborate) since its discovery in Persia more than 4,000 years ago. It is a naturally occurring mineral found in concentration in dried salt lake beds, and consists of water, sodium, boron and oxygen. That’s it. Boron is an essential trace mineral nutrient required for many functions in the body, like rebuilding bone and teeth, hormone regulation, absorption and metabolism of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, and maintaining communication between your cells.


There's no asphalt within half a mile of my home.

[ElysianWort]

The lumber used to be treated with arsenic and chromium copper arsenate. Indeed it WAS very toxic. Borate is a much better solution.

[SBH]

A better solution would be to legalize hemp farming in Hawaii for industrial purposes. Henry Ford's first car was made out of non-toxic hemp plastic.

Building materials could be made with hemp, newspapers, clothing, rope, canvas. Many, many products could be made with Hawaii grown hemp and EXPORTED, probably creating many more jobs than the TMT.

[kalakoa]

Two steps into any google search you set up so it agrees with you

You don't even have to set this up; Google learns from your searches and starts returning things that are "more relevant" over time.

A better solution would be to legalize hemp farming in Hawaii for industrial purposes.

Permits are available today; production facilities, not so much.

[ElysianWort]

Preaching to the choir there. I'm all for it. Bring on the hemp.

[SBH]

It could replace the sugar industry. Hawaii could even make its own toilet paper so that wouldn't have to be shipped here any more.

[Tink]

Hemp cultivation should not be allowed in the islands, as it is a highly invasive weed that knows no boundaries. Look at the South where it was cultivated and you will see that is is choke on the drainage ditches and gullies where they used to grow it back in the day. Here, I feel it would rapidly consume whatever the albezia would allow, and both would win. One side to the stuff in how invasive it is the fact that anybody growing the smokable kine outside will soon have a crop of unsmokable hemp from cross pollinization in its aggressive manner of growth.
The biggest problem with plastics is everything is "individually wrapped" in the stuff for "safety" reasons in this crazy world, and nobody wants it in their possession once they have consumed the food it was wrapped in. Out the car window, tossed over the shoulder, what have you, and it ends up on the street where " oh, somebody else will clean up my mess, just like mommy did". So, I guess we really live in a "disposable" society if you think about it, and there is always a price for "convenience".


Community begins with Aloha

[Carey]

I am so glad there are people here with vision.
For those, you have stated that this idea is not good...but your visions do not answer the fact that we have a lot of plastic waste here, now...what is YOUR vision to reduce the current waste (remember that this system can use dirty plastics, so the decades of waste plastics that are buried & floating out at sea can be used.

Also, the video shows that the building material is to be encapsulated, so the plastic will not leach to the extent that even sanitary landfilling plastic does...and much less than marine deposition of plastic has.

If you are worried about the future... the system can even reuse the blocks .... so that the process can continue without the creation of any more, just using & reusing the waste plastics that have already been made... that is until your visions are common stream...